Blog Post 2

The first article I chose is titled "Academic and Athletic Self-Concept of Students with Learning Disabilities". The title is what really drew me to the article due to the fact that it basically asks the same qualitative research problem I posed last week. The interesting thing though is that the results I expected in my problem are not the same as the results found in the study. I expected to find the research credit sports for increasing student self-concept among the population. This article, however, really only serves to further prove the point that students diagnosed/classified as having a learning disability have lower self-esteem and than their typically developing peers in regard to academics. Seems pretty obvious, especially if they've been told they are learning disabled and/or receive education in separate classrooms/schools.

The study was essentially a student poll taken at a private school for students with learning disabilities that reinforced the negative self-concept among this population and, to my surprise, found that athletics are no different. Essentially, students with learning disabilities don't think they're good at sports and don't really want to play them. 6% play because they want to and 83% of respondents said they only play them because their parents expected them to.

Dev, P., Smith, J.M., Lescynski, M., & Ladrigan, P.M. (2006). Academic and athletic self- concept of students with learning disabilities. International Journal of Learning, 12(5), 341-344.

The second article was titled "Relating Physical Education and Activity Levels to Academic Achievement in Children". Much like the first article this one is unique in that it is similar to the qualitative research problem I posed last week. This article looked at both physical education classes and how vigorous an activity or a routine a student performed in relation to academic achievement. The study found that the more vigorous the activity a student participated in the higher the academic outcome they achieved in relation to their more inactive peers.

This article was very short, but it answered a lot of questions and even left more open as the author addressed an point, students who participate in more sports are generally from a higher socio-economic class. The study was also interesting in that it championed phys ed in the curriculum but found that participation in phys ed produced no measurable affect on academic achievement.

Siegel, Donald (2007). Relating physical education and activity levels to academic achievement in children. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 78(1), 10.

The biggest problem I've encountered with my research has been finding a good amount of articles that relate to my research problem. This can be easily alleviated by toying with my research problem and/or looking at the problem from a new perspective.